In my final few months left at UW-Stevens Point I have laid awake many nights thinking about my time here–truly I have. I do not think much about the horrible classes I took, the ones I skipped or the times I excelled. I have mostly been thinking about who I was when I came here from Spooner, Wis., a small dot on the map and how I’ve changed.
I came here ready to learn and get out, my main goal–none of that “party stuff you see in dem dere films.” I moved myself in my freshman year and unloaded my VW beetle at the last time possible and purposefully avoided meeting my roommate’s family. I was not going to talk to people if I didn’t have to. Hall activities and bonding? Excuse me? No thanks. I wasn’t anti-social, but I could manage on my own. I also came to Point with my best friend and she was the only companionship I needed.
I knew what I was going to do from the moment I learned interior architecture was a credible and well-known program. I would be the same small-town girl who every one knew and who obviously knew everything there is to know about life and interior design. This lasted roughly three days before I realized I was now a tiny speck amongst the masses of students. I remember walking into my very first class in my pointy black boots and nice sweater hoping I dressed nice enough. The rest of the class was in sweats and I was on the receiving end of the stink eye. Everything and everyone would question everything I believed and did right down to the way I dressed. Preparing for a career was much harder than I anticipated–it was and is much more than brain power.
Needless to say I also realized I knew nothing in the grand scheme of things. Putting academics aside, in my next few blogs I’d like to share a few of the things I did end up learning along the way by opening my mind and my heart to a new way of life we call college. I retired the boots and buckled down for a four-year ride.
-Meg
Meg Buchmann is a senior in the interior architecture program at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.